Excuse me?

I was sitting at the computer Friday afternoon, wasting time until I had to pick up Ernest from tennis try-outs, when I had an unexpected visitor.

Excuse me? Pee on my post, will you?

Aww, how can you resist that face?

Ernest says he lives down the street.

Diary

The Diary of Anne Frank is in the news. Not having read the new version in question, I can't comment about the new inclusions that might be offensive to some. I do wonder why the school knee-jerked and pulled it on the basis of one parental complaint, rather than following their normal procedure. And then I also wonder, did they upgrade to the new version without reading it first?

Ernest read the older version last year in 7th grade, and was able to visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam on his trip last summer. Entering the museum he said he "went through metal detector like a security line in an airport." The actual diary is on display, encased in "something like bulletproof plexiglass." This is a replica that they were allowed to touch.

Ernest bought a copy of the book at the museum. "I don't think I'll ever read it again, it was just something I wanted to have." Hey, I can read it now and see what the fuss was about.

(Photos and quotes by Ernest.)

Even Big Boys Need...

Even big boys need...


...naps.

It must have been a boring movie.

Comments

To answer some questions, I don't mind anonymous comments at all if they make sense. But I've been getting a slew of spammy comments on old blog posts, which irritates me. I'll just keep deleting them for now.

Sleuthing

For several weeks now, my Tupperware glasses have been disappearing. I have interrogated the usual suspects, who claim they are not and never have been in possession of the missing items.

Today I took my trusty torch, and spied over the side of the primary suspect's bed. Bingo. The 5 missing items were located, along with a real glass and 7 partially used water bottles.


The suspect (Ernest) was later apprehended and was appropriately embarassed.

Just call me Nancy Drew.

Lost Weekend

Yes, it was LOST. Frank and I spend most of the time catching him up on many of the Lost seasons he's missed. I was happy to rewatch what I had forgotten. It was nice to hang out with him.... He has a season and a half to go before next Tuesday.

Now we are taking a Lost break and finishing a House disc. Spoiler alert....House discovers that cats like to sleep on electric blankets. No surprise here.

What did you do this weekend?

Storm Stories

We've survived our week of storms with very little trouble.

Not surprisingly, I've been too scared to navigate through the teenager's room to search in the depths of the closet lazy to find my negatives of the 2008 El Nino storm, when we lost 5 trees in the back yard.

But this year, in 5 days of storms, I am thankful that all our trees are intact, although I see two tipped over down by the creek in the neighbor's yard. (The clean and tidy neighbor not the messy one!)

I had a small leak in the place that always leaks if the wind drives rain sideways into the house.

Around the corner, a fence has fallen over. This house was for sale for ages, was bought a long time ago, and is still vacant. They've had a dead tree for 6 months. Glad it didn't fall over. Wonder when that will get fixed.

The city water meter reader was doing his rounds yesterday when it was raining heavily...as I passed him I saw the meter hole was gushing out water. Today I saw him with a pump slung across his back. Good thinking!

The kidlets at school must have cabin fever. Why are those huge fifth graders in such a small classroom? Fifth was moved to the lower campus a few years ago. OMG, they can hardly get around the desks. They should be in the larger regular classrooms, not the portables. At least they'll be out of there next year when the new building is finished.

We had several breaks in the storms, so Ernest and McQueen seized the opportunity for bike rides. They came home either muddy or soaking wet. Falling in a deep puddle will do that to you. This time, his shoes did not kick open the dryer because I put some old towels in, too.

I'm hoping for some clear weather this weekend...McQueen has his birthday party tomorrow and Ernest has a zoo day Sunday.

Searching...

We're in day 3 of what is supposed to be almost a week of consecutive rainstorms.

I wanted to post some photos of the big storm of 1998, but I didn't want to pull apart the scrapbook to scan them, and wouldn't you know I can't find the negatives. So this afternoon is going to involve some tearing apart of Ernest's closet (which used to be my storage catch-all) to find the box. I usually know where everything is, so I hate it when I can't find something.

Direct Relief International

Another good and safe place to donate --

Direct Relief International, located down the street from the Handy Husband's office, provides medical supplies all over the world and is rated by Forbes magazine as 99% efficient in fundraising. They have already made emergency shipments to Haiti.

I have donated to DRI, Red Cross, QIFD, and Doctors Without Borders.

Help for Haiti

My beloved niece's best friend from high school worked with the Peace Corps in Haiti. She has strong ties to the country and many friends there, and has compiled a list of aid sites on her blog. Please click on that link for information.

Stay Silly

Lori wrote a beautiful birthday post about her son. I hope they always have fun together and do silly things!

I think the world needs more silliness. Sometimes I get silly at school. It happened again last Friday. I was watching some first grade girls on the play structure, while their teacher did P.E. with the boys, and something clicked and I climbed up the structure and slid down the slide, squealing with delight as I reached the bottom. The girls loved it. The superintendent was walking across the schoolyard at the same time -- I wonder what he thought! (I think he's OK with silly -- sometimes he wears a Tigger tie.)

So do something silly today.

La Tour Eiffel (de Lego)

Ernest loved his architectural Lego so much that I found this for him:

3428 pieces. We didn't have nearly enough muffin tins. Thank goodness most of the bags contained only one type of brick. Grey. Dark Grey.

Ta dah! That thing is huge.

And here's the real thing. All photos by Ernest, from his trip last summer.

"Straight up now tell me
Is it gonna be you and me together oh oh oh
Are you just having fun"

Yes, he's having fun.






What's next? The Taj Mahal? And maybe, someday? This?

Things I Shouldn't Do?

Yahoo just had an article about things men shouldn't ask women to do. It's been so long I don't remember if my husband ever actually asked me to do these things or if I just took over...but I am guilty of the top 4:

#1. His laundry
#2. Buy gifts and cards for other people on his behalf
#3. Plan an entire vacation without his help
#4. Make him a sandwich

And #6 is for the kids:

#6. Be his wake-up call

In return, he takes care of the cars and major home repairs. I think it's a fair deal.

For My Friends

My bookshelves are overflowing. The piles on the floor are towering. I have to declutter a little, so I have some books I'd like to pass on.

Heat, by Bill Buford (thanks, Vanessa, now I am passing it on to someone else) Jenn @ Juggling Life's got heat!
A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity, by Whitney Otto
Forever, by Judy Blume
The Last Song of Dusk, by Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi
The Last Wife of Henry VIII, by Carolly Erikson -- goes to Jen on the Edge!
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand (yellow cover)

Leave a comment if you want one or more.

A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

You know you live in a small town when...

...the big event on a Friday night is the annual Christmas tree burn. The fire department took the opportunity to talk about fire safety.

One little tree sure went up fast.



Then they lit the pile.



Whoosh!






Afterwards we went to a smorgasbord. Then I watched The Accidental Husband, a lame movie where the wrong guy got the girl. Team Colin! (I Googled Colin Firth Hot and that's what I got.)

What's hot for you this weekend?

"Where's The Ice Cream?"

Ernest is having a little problem waking up this week. Only this week? No, it's ongoing.

This morning, after his second "wake-up" call from me, he called out, "Where's the ice cream?"

Huh? Wha? He was dreaming. He said it was a line from one of the zoo skits he did last summer.


The night before I woke up to hear a noise -- thump -- everything on my husband's dresser was knocked to the ground and my electric blanket controller was pulled out on the floor. I got up to find an ugly brown cat just outside the door, staring and taunting me. I went back to bed. And WOKE UP. It was all a dream. I wish I'd dreamed about ice cream!

What have you dreamed about lately?

Olive You

Why is it that the best picture I take every holiday is the one of the boy with olives on his fingers?


Olive you, too!